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Evoluzione presents Guest Chef series preview

Hotel Xenia presents Guest chef Event’s series at their restaurant Evoluzione. Every six weeks a different Italian guest chef takes their diners through a journey of culinary regions from Italy. Priced at £65 per person it includes a set course meal, a flight of wines paired with each dishes. There’s some show cooking involved, unfortunately a technical hiccup in the kitchen meant we didn’t get to experience any show cooking for the evening.

Set in the gorgeous Victoria building in the Kensington area, this boutique hotel has a stunning fore fronted restaurant. Evoluzione occupies the stunning conservatory; we spied the Pastry Chef Manuele Francesco decorating his cakes that end up in our bellies at the end of the evening. Whilst a pianist in the corner played music from a full transparent piano.

Nuffnang and Zomato invited me down to experience the first of their series. A warm bread selection was giving to us throughout the night. Entry dish came in a form of a rose shape, unravel the cord and the pleasant surprise came to be it was made out of scallop.

Next dish served up on a big white plate with black squid smears and runny yellow and white sauce, topped with king prawns.

Seafood ravioli filled the plate, and the waiters came along with a silver pot to pour lobster bisque. It was hard to tell what was inside of the seafood ravioli, a mushed up mix was a little bland, but the creamy lobster bisque made up for it.

I was excited to see black cod making it’s way on the menu however it wasn’t as silky smoothly cooked as other places I’ve eaten before. Seasoning of the potatoes wasn’t thoroughly mixed, some parts were too salty, and another batch just tasted of strong garlic.

The following dish, I enjoyed the turbot a lot more then the black cod. Tiniest thin strips of calamari, artichoke and roasted aubergine finished off the savoury side of things.

The best had to be saved for last; desserts were just marvellous and outstanding. It tasted like a mascarpone panna cotta, with nutty notes.

Now remember how there was a cake decorated by Manuele Francesco at the very beginning? Now a slice of that masterpiece ended up on my plate, praline sponge cake with full whipped cream and delicious chocolate truffles that explodes in your mouth.

£65 is a good bargain for a fun experience of 6-7-course meal including wine. Events are held every 6 weeks, running until November.